


Of Archangels and Men

by Groomps



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Episode: s13e17 The Thing, Gabriel Needs a Hug, Gen, Hurt Gabriel (Supernatural), Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Season/Series 13 Spoilers, s13e17 Coda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-20 03:39:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14252232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Groomps/pseuds/Groomps
Summary: Sam is left behind to tend after a broken, non-functional archangel. But it's not as easy as it might seem.





	Of Archangels and Men

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little drabble at what I'm hoping is going to go down in the next few episodes. I tried to keep things as realistic as they can be in terms of character behavior etc, so let's see if I called anything on Thursday!

Sam watched on as Dean and Ketch disappeared into the portal, a million thoughts running through his head. Anger, confusion, frustration, you name it, he's feeling it.

He clenched and unclenched his fists, trying to calm down. One side of him wanted to scream at the now vacant spot where Dean stood, wanted to jump in after his brother and slap him silly for leaving him behind and going in with no backup.

The other side of him completely understood his intentions. Dean required backup back on the other side in case something went wrong, needed a means of connection to the other side. And Sam needed to stay behind to care for the archangel.

As if on cue, Sam turned around to face said archangel, who had not moved an inch off the chair, his eyes sporting a distant, void look. A surge of sadness and horror flashed through his mind. Sam didn't know the correct way to approach the matter, so he went head-on.

"Well, let's get those stitches out." He said, nodding at the threads sticking out of Gabriel's wounded lips. He walked a bit too fast towards Gabriel, who immediately recoiled in fear and let out a squirm.

"It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm Sam, remember? The guy you tormented for 6 months?" Sam half chuckled, clearly not in the mood for this entire ordeal when all he wanted was to go after Dean and smack him right in the face, so when he grabbed the pliers off the table a little too quickly, Gabriel fell right off the chair, flat on his ass on the floor, and started scurrying away backwards while letting out terrified grunts. His lips were still sealed tight despite Sam having cut the stitches earlier.

"Whoa, whoa!" Sam shouted, letting the pliers back onto the table, and defensively put his hands on the air.

"I'm not gonna hurt you!" He tried, but Gabriel was already moving backwards against a wall and trying to shield himself with his knees, his muffled screams never-ending.

Sam acted out of instinct and fell on the floor as well, realizing his tall posture and his words had probably scared the poor archangel half to death.

"It's okay, it's okay," he cooed, not moving any closer to him. "You're safe." He crossed his legs and put his hands where Gabriel could see them.

Gabriel's screams were soon reduced to silence as he bowed his head against his knees, refusing to look at Sam, who got up as soon as that happened.

"I'm not gonna hurt you, you're okay." He repeated the mantra, hoping it had any sort of calming effect on the traumatized archangel. 'What the hell happened to you?', he wanted to ask. Whatever did, to break such a tough shell of an archangel must not have been a walk in the park. Sam felt a pang of sympathy for Gabriel at that moment, realizing that he too was on the same boat as him, trauma and all.

Sam waited for a few minutes to let things cool off as long as they could.

"Gabriel?" Sam asked the shaking figure, who did not react to his name.

"Will you let me take the stitches out? I won't touch you, I promise." He tried, and to his surprise, Gabriel's head slowly rose up to face him. Sam saw a million emotions in the eyes of the archangel, feeling another spark of sympathy for the poor man. He felt his dilemma at fearing touch, yet feeling so touch starved. It sickened him.

"How's that sound, huh?" He smiled a sad smile, and Gabriel's eyes fell on the floor. His shaky hands went on the floor as well, to try and support his weight as he tried to get up. Sam made one step forward and the archangel was flat on the floor once more, another yelp leaving his throat.

"Okay, okay, I'll just bring you the chair, alright?" Sam quickly walked two steps to the chair and dragged it near Gabriel, who placed both arms on the surface and pulled himself upwards, eventually managing to sit up on the chair. Sam saw him clearly panting at the effort it took to get off the floor.

Sam dragged his own chair near him.

"I'm going to get the pliers now, I promise I won't hurt you." Sam carefully raised the pliers so Gabriel could see them and with his other hand he grabbed a cloth and water, and slowly sat down back on the chair.

"I'm going to place this wet cloth over your lips to soften the threads up, okay? Will you let me?" Sam narrated, blinking at the archangel. Gabriel's glance was firmly on the ground, but slowly his eyes moved up and his head turned to face Sam straight on.

"Alright. It will hurt a bit but I'm sure you can do it." 'Who knows what else you have endured, this is a brisk walk in the park,' was what he wanted to say next but rightfully held back.

Sam very gingerly placed the cloth upon Gabriel's burning, swollen lips, who flinched away for half a moment before resuming place. The cold water on his lips offered a new, yet so familiar sensation that made Gabriel close his eyes in utter euphoria. Sam felt his lips curl up in a smile as Gabriel closed his eyes in content. After a few minutes, Sam removed the now bloodied cloth to utilize the other side, letting the punctures soak in and wipe away the crusted blood.

After Sam removed the cloth for the final time, Gabriel's eyes fluttered open and fixated themselves somewhere above Sam's head. Sam gently took ahold of the pliers.

"Gabriel, I'm going to remove the threads, okay? This will hurt a bit, but try to hold on." Sam showed him the pliers and the archangel's eyes followed them until they came close to his lips. Sam saw Gabriel take in a deep breath and carefully took a hold of the first thread, snapping it free of its fleshy bonds. Gabriel grunted in response, but did little else.

"Don't move," Sam coaxed as he carefully removed each of the hanging threads off Gabriel's lips, then carefully dabbing each spot painted red with fresh blood.

Sam squinted and cringed at the sight, and Gabriel flinched at each pull -or movement, for that matter- but after a few minutes Sam had successfully removed each of the crusty threads. After he applied gentle pressure with a fresh wet cloth dipped in alcohol on Gabriel's stinging lips he let all the instruments back onto the table. Gabriel had closed his eyes not long ago, and fluttered them open once more. Sam looked at him, Gabriel looked at the table.

"See, that wasn't so bad," Sam got up, wiping the drops of sweat off his forehead with the back of his wrist. Gabriel didn't react to the comment, but did flinch at the movement. Droplets of blood were forming on his lips, albeit slowly, but the archangel didn't seem to care.

Sam took a long moment to observe the sitting figure, whose eyes went right back to darting around on the ground in front of him, curious to know what they were seeing.

"I, uh, will be right back. Don't go anywhere, okay?" Right after talking, Sam mentally slapped himself for the absurdity of his words. Of course he wasn't going to go anywhere, he can barely walk!

Sam retreated to the library and pulled out his phone, typing a number with one hand and scratching his ear with the other.

The line beeped thrice, then a gravelly voice spoke.

"Hello, Sam." The aforementioned breath a silent sigh of relief at the pick up.

"Hey, Cas. Where are you?"

"At the moment I am in search of the seal of Solomon, trying to find any leads. Is everything okay? Is Dean hurt?" Sam frowned once at the comment, feeling justly left out, his mouth agape slightly.

"Uh, yeah, he's just fine. We're all fine. It's just that, we already found the seal-"

"You what?" Cas's voice rocked Sam's eardrum, who squinted at the loud voice.

"Yeah, yeah, wait, and we also opened the portal to the other world-"

"You WHAT?" Sam pulled the phone away slightly, sighing at the predicament.

"And Dean went in there with Ketch to find mom and Jack." Sam expected the third exclaim to rupture his eardrums, but instead was met with deafening silence. Which was somehow worse.

"I'll be right there."

"Wait, Cas, hold on, the bunker is warded! I'm not finished." Sam fidgeted with his fingers, a habit he picked up a few weeks ago, and waited for Cas' response.

"Why, what's going on?" Sam took a deep breath.

"Remember how the spell required the grace of an archangel?" Sam bit his upper lip and braced for the fallout.

Silence fell once again, Sam could practically hear the gears in Cas' head running.

"It's Gabriel, Cas. He's alive." He finally came forth, not sure that he should have revealed that over the phone.

"Find a room, ward it." Was all that Cas uttered before the line cut off.

The line cutting off was something that Sam totally expected. After all, all this news was a bit too much to take in in one sitting, even for an angel.

Sam hid his phone back in his pocket and made a detour to the rest of the bunker. He started opening doors until he finally found the one room he was looking for. A panic room.

Nodding to himself, he quickly retreated back to the main area, where he found Gabriel exactly where he had left him. He seemed to not have moved even an inch, the same distant look in his eyes that Sam grew to hate a lot within the past 20 minutes.

"Alright, Gabriel, we're gonna have to change rooms. There's a panic room upstairs, I'm gonna ward it and it'll be safer. Okay?" Gabriel made no indication of ever hearing the hunter speak, which both irritated and saddened Sam.

"Can you get up?" Sam asked, taking a step forward. Gabriel instantly recoiled in fear, his eyes suddenly locked in Sam's face. Sam threw his hands in front of him defensively, hating the fact that he was treating Gabriel as if he were a wild animal.

"Hey, calm down. You're okay." So, no touch, no sudden moves.

"I'm gonna need you to get up for me. Can you do that?" Gabriel's gaze fell onto the floor again, but this time his hands went on the table to support himself as he slowly rose to his feet.

"Can you support yourself on me?" Sam asked, once again going unnoticed as Gabriel supported himself on the table and stared down at Sam's shoes. Sam bit the inside of his cheek in thought.

"Alright, follow me, I guess." As Sam took one last glance at Gabriel and turned his back to move forward, he wondered once again what horrors went down in order to reduce Gabriel the archangel, one of the most powerful beings Sam had ever met, into this husk of kicked puppy mixed with wild animal. It sickened him, and he silently wished for the old trickster back.

Sam turned his head back to make sure that Gabriel was following him, which he was, albeit slowly. When they reached the stairs, Sam waited a bit for Gabriel to catch on and then began climbing up the flight slowly. It took them a while, but they finally arrived outside the room. Sam spared the archangel a glance before slowly opening the door, taking a few steps inside and allowing the archangel to do the same.

"Here. It doesn't have much, but it's the best we can do. I'll get started on the warding, you just-" Sam's words drifted off as Gabriel made a slow beeline for the bed, standing above it and looking down. Sam felt his heart twist into a tight knot at the sight. 'He probably hasn't seen a bed in so long'.

"You can sit down. It's safe, I promise." On cue, Gabriel slowly sat down on the bed, then gingerly scuffled up against the wall and leaned against the nightstand, bringing his knees to his chest and hugging them tightly. Sam's fists tightened at the sight, suddenly feeling a lot of anger and rage towards the hell demon that he'd like to manifest in physical pain directed at him sometime. He went out to cool off and to find a paint bucket.

\--

Sometime later, Sam was finished with warding the panic room. His maneuvers didn't seem to scare Gabriel that much anymore, which was a good sign in his mind. He let the paint bucket down and wiped his forehead on his sleeve.

"Well, all done. Cas should be here any moment." At the mention of his brother, Gabriel's head snapped up to meet Sam's eyes. Sam could finally sense a different emotion lurking behind the archangel's honey brown eyes, one that didn't involve fear or horror or mistrust. Sam felt the corners of his mouth tug into a smile and grabbed a chair to sit opposite the bed. As Gabriel resumed his absentminded staring into the abyss, Sam took the time to observe him clearly.

He noticed the way Gabriel was trying to appear even smaller than he was, almost as if wanting to disappear, which went completely against the way an uber powerful being like him should act. His eyes remained motionless now, firmly fixated downwards. Sam identified with the archangel, wanted to tell him how he mostly knew what he felt, given his time in the cage. But at the same time, he had no idea what Gabriel must have gone through. To break him -him!- must have taken a long time, and a lot of effort. Sam suddenly winced at the thought of Gabriel getting his lips sewn shut. He was being cut off from expressing himself, having his voice taken away. From the minute Sam had met him, the archangel had done nothing but express himself.

Having that taken away surely would have helped break him down effectively.

He wasn't even attempting to speak, despite the threads having been removed from his mouth. New blood was crusted on his lips but he didn't seem to care. Sam tightened his fist once again. How could he speak, when he was probably getting punished for doing so, for God knows how long? If Gabriel spent years there, that must have added up to hundreds of years in hell time. 

Shit.

A new surge of rage built up inside Sam, along with the need to hug the archangel. He hated seeing people like this, and despite Gabriel having tortured Sam psychologically for so long, in the end he came through for them. Sam had long since figured out the lessons Gabriel was trying to teach him before the apocalypse anyway.

The sound of a doorbell violently snapped Sam out of his thoughts, and made Gabriel flinch as a result.

"That's Cas. Don't worry, we'll be right back." Sam exclaimed, not waiting for a response, and closed the door behind him as he ran downstairs and opened the door to meet a very enraged Cas.

"Explain everything to me, now."

\--

The bunker almost shook with the force in Cas' step as he marched up stairs and hallways next to Sam.

"So, let me get this straight. You fought a tentacle God, opened the portal, and now Dean is in apocalypse world alone?" Sam sighed weakly, trying to keep up with the smaller man.

"He's with Ketch." Sam responded, hoping Cas' nerves would calm down.

"Oh, cause that makes it so much better!" Cas groaned in frustration and anger at Dean leaving him behind and jumping into the alternate universe with Arthur god damn Ketch.

Cas stopped walking suddenly, causing Sam to halt his step as well.

"I can't believe him sometimes," Cas finally sighed, feeling the last of his anger evaporating away.

"He didn't even take you with him?"

"Uh, no, he wanted me to stay back and take care of.. loose ends." Sam gestured to the closed door and raised his eyebrows. They took a few more steps until they were right outside.

Sam gently knocked on the door.

"Hey, I'm with Cas, we're coming in." Cas frowned at the need for Sam to announce himself as Sam opened the door to the panic room.

Cas' frown was immediately extinguished.

Gabriel had moved closer to the middle of the bed, although his posture remained the same. He spared no glances to the two figures looming over as Cas took a few steps forward into the room, while Sam remained in the doorway.

Cas could sense Gabriel's grace, it was really him. He breathed in horror at the state his brother's grace was in, almost snuffed out and ridden with holes. This wasn't the mighty archangel Gabriel he'd known as his brother, this was barely a functioning being at best.

Cas slowly approached the figure, careful so as not to scare him away, and stood over him like some sort of protector. He spared Sam a shocked glance, who nodded sadly. Cas placed one hand on Gabriel's shoulder, watching in horror as his brother flinched away from the touch for just a moment.

"Gabriel, what happened..." It wasn't really a question but rather a shocked remark as Cas' grace intertwined with Gabriel's and he closed his eyes, feeling every physical and emotional wound it had to offer.

Sam watched on in bemusement as Cas carefully placed both hands on Gabriel's head, watching the archangel lean into the touch for the first time that day instead of cowering away in fear, although his expression had not changed.

Cas closed his eyes in concentration, although it only lasted a few short moments. After reopening his eyes, he stared at Sam. He remained quiet for a beat before he spoke.

"His grace is greatly diminished, he cannot heal on his own, and my grace isn't enough to heal him completely. He'll have to replenish it very slowly." Sam nodded in response, crossing his arms.

"What about the, uh, y'know. Mental scars?" When Cas frowned, Sam backtracked. "I mean, uh, is it the same as in humans? In regards to, healing time? Or, any long lasting effects? Change in personality?" Cas narrowed his eyes at the hunter.

"I don't know for sure, but I'm assuming it's similar. We have to know the true extent of his ordeal to begin to help him properly." Cas said, not removing his hands from Gabriel's head, who had since closed his eyes.

"Can he hear us? I- He hasn't reacted to pretty much anything I've said so far, which wasn't a lot." Sam leaned against the doorframe.

"Gabriel is, I guess you can say, traumatized. There's a good reason he's not reacting to your words, all we can do now is provide a safe and comfortable environment for him as he begins to heal." Cas finally let go of Gabriel's forehead and retreated back next to Sam. Together, they turned to look at the archangel once again.

"You think he'll ever be the same again?" Sam asked the Angel, his gaze still focused on the figure on the bed.

"I don't know, Sam. I don't know how he's even alive right now. We've got a long way to go." Cas responded and went out of the room, walking down the hallway. Sam lingered on just for a moment, eyes still fixed on him. He was surprised at himself for having forgiven the archangel so quickly, but thinking back on that night at the motel, Gabriel had sacrificed everything he had to save the brothers. Sam solemnly swore to help Gabriel heal completely and kick Asmodeus in the nuts. Hopefully with Gabriel next to him to deliver the final blow.

"You're gonna be okay, you hear? I'll make sure of it." Sam tapped his nails on the door before exiting the room, closing the door behind him. As he followed Cas back to the living room, he knew they were going to be alright in the end. They always were.

**Author's Note:**

> My poor poor archangel, I've waited 8 years for this moment but not like this, writers, not like this TT_TT  
> Something I've realized, though, is that if Gabriel spent 8 years stuck in hell, that's around 1200 years in hell time! If he spent one year, that's 160 hell years! No wonder he's like this, someone give him a hug and hot chocolate RIGHT this instant


End file.
